Full Circle
by Xuleika
Summary: Jak must once again walk the path that he took so many years ago. But what awaits him at the end of it this time?
1. Prologue

Authors Note: I am trying my hand at a longer story for a change, and so have begun with a beginning and the first few chapters.

These are also a bit of an interest check; I would love to hear reader's reactions to them to give me motivation to write more and see whether it is worth me completing the entire story. After all, there is not much point in me writing it if no one is reading or enjoying it, and I realize that there is a much smaller fan base for Jak and Daxter fan fiction these days.

I would also enjoy any constructive criticism that anyone has to offer, though I do hope that I haven't made too many mistakes. :)

I was a little disappointing when Naughty Dog dropped the Jak and Daxter series without fully clearing up everything about the plot, so I have decided to write my own version of what I think might of happened. If you don't agree with it that is fine, it is just one possibility is a sea of them. I will try to make it fit in with the original story lines as best as possible.

Set after Jak X, I do not take The Lost Frontier into account because I don't like it. Canon pairings, JakxKeira, DaxxTess, etc.

Rated T for violence later in the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, yadda yadda.

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><p>At the bottom of an ancient, deep darkness, enclosed within walls of metal, an ethereal green light glowed. It had waited there for many eras, and may have even originated from before time began. It had been hidden away in the darkness, waiting for destiny to unfold.<p>

At one instant in time, another, different light shone through the darkness momentarily, but was gone as soon as it had come. A long while later there was a shift in the darkness around the green glow, and then a different shadow reached out to it, sliding over it.

If it could have been seen, there was a silhouette of a hand pressing itself up against the surface of the glow, and the ethereal light of it which had always been steady though time, wavered.


	2. Chapter 1: Never Normal

The back of an oil stained hand wiped over an equally grubby cheek, smearing black lines across fair skin. Grease tipped fingers pushed a stray lock of teal hair back behind a large pointed ear. Then the hand returned to the pile of metal and wires sitting on a bench in front of its owner. Actually, if you looked closer it appeared to be some sort of small engine device, though mostly dismantled with screws, washers, nuts and bolts strew across the bench around it. After working for a few moments both hands drew away from the device and back up to the face, grasping both sides of the goggles covering the green eyes and lifting them down and away from the face, left to hang around the neck.

Keira sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, before opening them again to look down at her work. After she gave a small shake of her head she turned away from the bench and walked over to a small hand basin attached to the garage wall, turning on the tap to let cold water stream down over her sweaty dirty hands. As she washed away the grease, she looked up at the small mirror that hung over the basin and realised that her face was nearly as grimy as her hands. Pulling a face at her reflection, she picked up a hand towel and wet it under the water before beginning the task of cleaning her features.

As she was rubbing at a stubborn mark on her chin, she head a soft knock on metal behind her. Still holding the wet cloth to her face, she turned around to see what it was. Over in one of the wide doorways to the garage stood a young man with short blonde hair, green eyebrows and goatee, with large brown strapped goggles covering most of his hairline. He was dressed in a white top, blue jacket, pants and shoes, with a yellow stripe and brown patches accenting parts of the outfit and metal parts covering the elbows, knees and shoulders.

"Oh, hi Jak," Keira said surprised, continuing to rub absent minded at her skin with the cloth while looking over at her friend. His awkwardness of unintentionally barging in on her, as well as simply being in her presence, was obvious in his expression and body language. Though he had always been like that around her, the inability for him to express his feelings as easily as others after his change in prison made it even harder for him. However, Keira was not offended by this behaviour, in fact she found this awkwardness in the battle hardened warrior rather endearing.

Jak went from looking apprehensive to amused at the sight of Keira's still smeared face. "Hey Keira," he began, walking further into the room towards her, "I was urr… wondering if you would like to… come and watch today's race with me?" he question was halting and awkward, and he returned to looking apprehensive, his gaze falling to the ground.

A look of surprise crossed Keira's greasy features. "But you… you mean you're not going to race?"

Jak looked up at her face again. "Hey, I don't wanna win every race, I gotta give the others a chance," Jak said more confidently in pretend arrogance, giving a small smirk. "Besides, I wanted to… spend some time with you…"

A soft smile spread across Keira face. "Well then, I would love to come Jak," she said gratefully, but then paused. "… but first I better finish washing up," she giggled slightly, which brought a smile to Jak's own face.

"Okay, I'll just wait for you outside then," he turned and walked out of the garage, turning around the corner to go outside.

Keira turned back to the mirror and started vigorously scrubbing at her face, rubbing off the marks as quickly and as best as she could. Once her face was as close to clean as she was going to get, she wiped the grease off the locks of her hair which had got in her way when she was working. Finally she gave her goggles a quick wipe over and then dropped the now mostly black cloth into the sink. She looked down at her clothing, decided it wasn't too dirty, and quickly walked out of her garage, following the way Jak had went.

She stepped into the sunlight of the world outside, which was the stadium section of the city, recently rebuilt after it was destroyed in the war. Keira spotted Jak standing with two small orange ottsels standing near his feet. The female ottsel with a head of blonde hair was squeezing the male one who was adorned with small goggles in a tight hug. Jak hand on hand on his forehead and was shaking his head slowly. Keira smiled as she approached the group.

"You know how I love the races my little snookiepoo!" Tess exclaimed in a patronising voice that one might use when speaking to a baby or pet animal, swaying back and forth with Daxter clutched firmly in her grip.

The male ottsel managed to free his arms from the hug and then prised his over affectionate partner off him, pushing her gently away from him with one hand. "Well, you should come and see me race again one day, Tess-baby!" he announced arrogantly, pushing a furry thumb into his chest fur to indicate to himself. "I'll totally whoop those wimpy guards on the track," he gave her a huge grin.

"I am sure you would, my hero… oh, but you mustn't go in those dangerous races, you might get hurt!" Tess exclaimed in distress, quickly grabbing hold of her partner again in a protective hug.

"Psshhh, these races are cake walks compared to those in Kras city," Daxter stated as he tried to untangle himself again. "Tell her Jak!" he looked up at his human friend.

"Why do I have to deal with these two," Jak said wearily, before turning to Keira who had been watching the scene with quiet amusement. "We should hurry up and get to our seats, the race will be starting soon," he explained, tilting his head towards the direction of the stadium entrance. Then he looked down at the two ottsels again, Tess attempting to cover Daxter in kisses. Jak sighed and reached down, swiping Daxter from his partner's grasp and sticking him on his armoured shoulder.

"Heeeey!" Tess complained, crossing her arms and pouting as Jak began to walk away with Daxter. Before she could say anymore Keira knelt down beside her, smiling. Tess smiled back and leaped up onto Keira's shoulder, and began to chat away as they followed the boys.

Jak and Keira edged past the knees of seated citizens in the stadiums tiered seats, headed towards an open spot on the bench. They finally sat down next to each other, Daxter and Tess hopping off their shoulders to sit next to them, the two ottsels holding hands and making lovey dovey noises, which the two human companions tried to ignore. They looked out over the race track, watching as the racers on zoomers pulled up into position on the starting line. Keira turned her face to Jak, looking at him in quiet adoration. Jak saw her out of the corner of his eye and turned to face her as well, smiling at her look.

"Thank you for this Jak I… appreciate it," Keira said softly, a small blush coloring her cheeks. Jak returned the blush, and started moving his head closer to hers. Keira tilted her head up, her lips parting slightly as he approached. She closed her eyes as their lips touched…

Suddenly applause erupted from the audience and a loud voice sounded over the speaker system, "Look at that score, nice job buddy!"

Keira and Jak suddenly broke apart, and stared back towards the stadium, seeing themselves on a big screen hanging above the race track, their image surrounded by love hearts. They both blushed furiously as they realised that they had been caught on the kiss-cam, Jak raising a fist to his mouth and coughing as he looked away.

"Hey, wait a minute," the loud voice of a commentator emitting from the speakers exclaimed, "Isn't that Jak? Hero of Haven and champion of the zoomer races?"

"I think it is Jerry, but why isn't he in the race?" a different voice replied.

"This isn't right: the champion should be there to defend his title. Come on down and race for us Jak! We have a spare zoomer for you!" the first voice urged. Surprise cross over Jak's face and the crowd started chanting his name. He quickly turned to look at Keira, who gave him an unhappy look. He turned back to the racetrack and raised a hand towards it, opening his mouth to protest. But suddenly two of the people sitting in front of them grab his hand and yanked him out of his seat. His body was passed across the crowd down towards the race track. He looked back at Keira with a desperate apologetic look, though she still frowned.

Jak was dumped down onto the metal walkway above the track, luckily managing to land on his feet. Rubbing one of his shoulders he looked up around him to see a sea of faces looking down at him, still chanting, and he was still being watched by the TV cam. He sighed, he shoulders sagging, but the he raised both hands, fingers out spread, to quiet the crowd.

"Okay okay, I'll race," he announced, trying to look a bit cocky for his fans. The crowd erupted in cheers once more as he dropped down onto the race track, mounting the zoomer they hand brought up for him. Testosterone began to pump through his brain as he tensed his body, preparing to race.

Jak glided casually across the finish line after his 5th lap, easily ahead of his competitors. He raised a fist of victory towards the cheering crowd, grinning confidentially as he eased his zoomer to a halt. As he waved to the fans, his eyes fell on the seats that he and Keira had occupied, but she was no longer there. Instead Daxter and Tess stood up on the bench, looking down the seat aisle. Jak followed their gaze and saw a figure disappear out the stadium door. Jak's face fell.

The crowd made uncertain noises as Jak ran out of the stadium, following his friend. Looking around outside he saw Keira stalking off towards her garage, her hands in fists by her sides. He jogged to catch up with her, catching her by the wrist the stop her.

"Keira, I am sorry, I didn't mean to-" he started but broke off when Keira whipped around to face him, a tear rolling down one cheek from a moist eye.

"Why does it always happen Jak? Why?" she asked accusingly, trying to control her wavering voice. "Nearly every time something gets in the way, usually saving the world or something. When can I ever have you to myself?" her tone changed to anger and frustration.

Jak was taken back, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to figure out how to reply.

"No," Keira interjected, not giving him the chance, "it's always going to be like this, isn't it? Jak the hero belongs to the city, and can never belong to-" she broke off with a sob, a hand rushing to her face as she looked away from him.

Jak looked at her with concern, feeling highly distressed about the situation: he didn't want to make her cry. "Keira, please, I don't mean for this things to happen, I didn't know you would be… affected… like this…" not knowing what else to say, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her.

Keira had a sharp intake in breath and her body stiffened, but then she melted into his embrace, wrapping her own arms around his waist and leaning her head on his chest. She was embarrassed and frustrated, but it really wasn't his fault, so she couldn't stay angry at him. She was never really angry with him in the first place, more simply angry with the world, for this wasn't his fault.

A small beeping sound broke the quiet of the moment, and Jak reluctantly pulled himself away from Keira to take the communicator out of his jacket. Keira wiped the tears from her eyes and the small device floated out of Jak's hand and expanded to its full size, floating in the air. The distorted voice of Ashelin sounded through the speaker on the device.

"Jak, we are having an emergency council meeting and we need everyone to be there. Can you come to the freedom HQ right away?"

Jak looked over at Keira, who had composed herself, and the turned back to the communicator. "Yes I'll come… is Keira invited?" he asked dubiously, his face set in a small frown.

"I was going to contact her, is she there with you?"

"Yes," he replied, glancing across at the teal haired girl again.

"Then bring her along too," Ashelin said affirmatively, "we'll see you there." The connection cut out and the communicator shrunk again and fell into Jak's hand. He stowed it away in a jacket pocket and turned back to Keira once more.

"Are you okay to go?" he asked gently, gesturing towards her with one hand.

"I… I'm fine…" she mumbled, looking down at her hands which were fidgeting in front of her. "I… I'm sorry for the outburst… I didn't mean it…" she sighed at herself.

"It's okay," Jak said dismissively, though he couldn't totally push it from his mind. He felt bad for failing her, even though it wasn't his fault. "C'mon, let's go and see the others."

"Hey! Don't forget about us!" a whiny voice exclaimed from behind Jak, causing him to turn around. Both Daxter and Tess stood with their arms cross, scowling at him. "Were you just gonna leave us here?" Daxter accused, pointing a finger at Jak. Before Jak even had a chance to reply, the ottsel had leapt up his arms and perched himself on his shoulder. Tess did similar for Keira.

"The city needs us again Jak, let's go!" Daxter smirked as he pointed towards the nearest hover car. Jak rolled his eyes and looked over at Keira, who was stifling an amused giggle.


	3. Chapter 2: Pressing Problems

Jak and his companions walked out of the elevator and into the main room of Freedom HQ, still the temporary base for the city council until the building of a new Haven Headquarters was finished in the middle of the city. Surrounding the circular computer table were nearly all of Jak's friends. Ashelin stood with one hand on her hip and the other resting on the edge on the table, Torn had his arms crossed over his chest and his usual grim expression and Samos stood simply holding onto his wooden staff. Pecker was standing on the edge of the table and Onin was seated a short distance away from it on her mat. Even Seem was there, her crimson eyes staring into the pale blue image of a sphere floating above the table.

"Thank you for coming Jak, and you too Keira," Ashelin said, gesturing for them to come closer to the table.

"Hey, what about us?" Daxter piped up, jumping off of Jak's should and standing on the table next to Pecker. Tess did the same, looking at all the faces around her.

Torn grimaced, "I think we can do without you, rat," he growled through clenched teeth.

"Don't you dare call my little whisker-puss a rat, you meanie!" Tess exclaimed, placing her hands on her furry hips and standing up on the tips of her toes, staring Torn in the eyes. Torn looked stunned and uncomfortable, he didn't know how to deal with the angered female ottsel.

"Yeah, I'm a hero you know!" Daxter announced arrogantly. "You should have more respect, tattooed wonder."

"Some big hero you are!" Pecker piped in. "I saw you in the Spargus arena, cowering away from the marauders," he said sarcastically.

"Oh yeah, well while we were putting our lives on the line, you were sitting up on the ever so safe comfy shoulder of the king, you monkey faced coward!" Daxter snapped back, bearing his teeth and the moncaw.

Torn's eyebrows were narrowing father and father as he began to reach over his shoulder for his knife, but Ashelin placed a hand on his arm, stopping him.

"That is enough of that," she cut in, giving them all a steely glare, which stopped Daxter and Pecker from leaping at each other. "We have more important matters to attend to. Jak, you may have already heard that we are having shortages in eco supply," she turned towards him.

"Well that's been happening since the Baron was around, what's new?" Jak asked sceptically.

"It's getting worse than ever now!" Samos cut in, knocking his staff on the floor. "The eco vents are now only giving off a trickle of power, and our reserves won't sustain the city for long. If only we could use light eco power, there are plenty of those vents around these days, but the stuff is just too powerful! We need reliable source of eco power… I wonder if there is a problem with the eco silos…"

"Seem, you have many eco vents and pipelines running through your temple. Do you know what could cause a shortage of eco emission?" Ashelin asked, tuning to the monk.

Seem looked up from her staring, and then closed her eyes and bowed her head to the woman, making signals in the air with her hand. "The Precursors built the eco silos across the world in order to produce eco when they were creating the world. They take in free life energy and transform it into eco, which is distributed through the pipelines to the vents, where the Precursors could take the power and use it to shape the world. When they left the planet, they did not turn off these silos, so they have produced eco ever since. I can see that a large drain on a vent may temporarily reduce the flow, but there should be no reason for them to stop producing eco completely," the monk explained placidly, returning her stare to the hologram.

Onin started waving her hands in the air in front of herself, Pecker watching before turning back to the group. "Onin says she would like to speak to Seem…" Pecker said uncertainly, looking up at the monk's painted face, "…alone."

"I will be happy to speak with the wise woman," Seem said calmly, bowing her head and then walking over towards Onin. Pecker was about to fly off over to when Seem stopped and held out a hand in front of him. "I am well verse in sign languages, I need no translation," she said evenly, before walking over to the old soothsayer and began conversing quietly.

"Looks like our only course of action is to follow a pipeline to the silo and see if there is a problem," Ashelin said thoughtfully, appearing to begin to form a plan in her mind.

"But in the mean time we still need eco to power the city," Samos exclaimed with large waves of his hand and staff. "There must be another silo nearby apart from our blue one…" he seemed to stare off into the distance for a moment, thinking himself.

Jak put a hand to his chin, stroking his goatee thoughtfully, before his eyes widened and he took his hand away. "What about the yellow eco silo on Snowy Mountain?" Jak inquired, remembering when he had been there all those years ago.

Everyone turned and stared at him with surprise, silence falling over the group. He lifted an eyebrow in confusion.

"Of course!" Samos exclaimed, breaking the silence. "I had completely forgotten about that. Though yellow eco is not as efficient as blue, its power can still be harnessed to run the city… why didn't I think of it before."

"Jak, do you know where the nearest yellow eco vent is?" Ashelin asked, looking at him with newfound hope.

Jak thought for a moment. "I think the easiest one to get to will be the one in Mountain Pass… though I am not quite sure how to get there in this new world…" he put up a hand to scratch the back of his neck, looking apologetic.

"I think I may know where you mean… a large canyon, north of the city," Ashelin said, nodding at him. "We can send you and a team of guards there to scout the area and locate that vent, so that we can figure out how to get the eco back here."

"I know where to look, right near the entrance of the cave at the end of the canyon," Jak explained, nodding back.

"I'll lead the team of guards," Torn's gruff voice cut in.

"Alright. You guys will go check things out while we formulate a plan for inspecting our own blue eco silo," Ashelin instructed.

"Can I go with you Jak?" Keira's tentative tone came from beside him. He turned to look at her in surprise. "I know a lot about eco and the eco vents and silos from… before… I think I might be able to help," she explained, looking down at her toes.

Before Jak could say anything Samos butted in again. "Yes, it would be good to have someone will eco knowledge come as well. Keira can be your adviser, and I will be here to provide advice on our eco silo if we reach it. It may be difficult though, since the old forbidden forest temple is buried beneath the city now."

Keira looked up at her father with surprise. Usually he wouldn't let her go anywhere in fear of her being in danger, he was often over protective. But then again in desperate times… she turned to look back up at Jak.

"Okay, you can tag along, it is only a scouting mission after all" he shrugged, but smiled at the same time. She returned it.

"Yeah, now let's get to it!" Daxter said, jumping up on Jak's shoulder again.

"What, you want to come?" Jak seemed shocked, seeing that usually Daxter wanted to stay as far away from danger as possible and metal head still roamed the lands outside the city.

"Well, Haven City gets so boring these days," Daxter complained, "We need some excitement around here."

Jak laughed at the ottsel. "Okay then, I guess I'll let you tag along," he joked.

Tess bounded across the table and leapt onto Keira's shoulder once again. "I'm coming along to protect my little snookie-wookums," she announced, grinning.

"I'll go and round up a guard squad," Torn said, heading towards the elevator. Jak and Keira were about to follow him when they heard a voice from the other side of the room.

"Hero, we must first speak with you," Seem's placid voice stated. She was standing up in front of Onin now.

Jak looked at his friends and shrugged, walking around the table towards the mystic and Monk as Samos moved over to Ashelin to discuss plans.

"Onin has a prophecy for you, Hero," Seem said, making hand signs in the air again and bowing her head.

Jak stood with his arms folded in front of the monk, as Daxter exclaimed, "Oh no, not another vague foretelling from the world's oldest professional." He put a hand up to his small fuzzy forehead.

Seem ignored the comment. "Onin says that soon you will end what you begun, and begin what you have ended." Onin placed one index finger in the air and drew a large circle in blue sparkly dust.

"Then the cycle will be complete," Pecker squawked, flying up behind them to stick his beak into whatever was going on. He landed on Onin's bowl, making himself comfortable in his usual pose.

Both Jak and Daxter just stared at the two foretellers and the translator with confusion. "Well what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Daxter exclaim angrily. "Couldn't you just give it to us straight for once?"

Before pecker could open his beak again, Seem spoke. "It would be good for you to show some respect yourself, animal," she said in a tone that was slightly more irritated that her usual calm manner.

Jak's sigh cut across whatever Daxter was about to retort, "Let's just go Dax, we'll figure it out eventually," he said, and turned to leave with Keira, a cross armed Daxter fuming on his shoulder.


	4. Chapter 3: Dissapointing Discovery

Authors note: Well, I got my first review for this story, and it inspired me to write more. So here is the next chapter.

It turned out far longer than I planned, so I will get onto the next as soon as I can so we can get the story moving on a bit.

Once again, any reviews are appreciated and will help me to continue with this.

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><p>The large transport vehicle, which was carrying Jak, his friends and a small troop of blue guards, flew swiftly across the country side. However, country side is probably not the word to properly describe the landscape: most of it was a wasteland compared to what Jak remembered it used to look like. The rolling hills were no longer covered in lush grasses and shrubs, now it was just sand and dirt, with a few hardy plants growing between the shelters of rocks.<p>

At least the shape of the landscape was somewhat recognizable, and Jak instantly identified a large circular crater filled with hot larva, in which he had once battled the giant monster lurker Klaww on his journey to the north, so very long ago. They were almost there now. The transport followed the winding valley that came off the crater, which seemed to harbor a bit more life than the land around it, probably because it was sheltered.

They flew over a huge chasm in the valley, and Jak told the driver to slow down as they approached the pine covered far side. The vehicle decelerated as they hovered just above the tree tops, and Jak turned his gaze out the window again, searching for any sign of a small piece of precursor metal in the sparse forest. He saw a glint of orange between the trees, near to one of the cliffs bordering the valley, and signaled the driver in that direction. The driver found a clearing among the trees and carefully set the vehicle down so that it was only hovering a foot above the ground.

"Okay, we're here, everybody out," Torn ordered swiftly, and one by one the guards stood up and walked down the ramp which was the open back door of the transport. After the guards had exited Keira and Jak got to their feet, walking down the ramp each with an ottsel on their shoulder. When they reached the grassy ground Torn was already giving orders to his guards.

"Everyone spread out and establish a perimeter. I want to know about trouble before it gets here," he said gruffly, and the guards saluted him and went to. But before they could move off Torn pointed two fingers and two guards standing near each other. "You two, come with us." The guards stopped moving, nodded, and then came to stand by their leader. Then Torn turned to Jak.

"It's over there," Jak stated, pointed towards the round piece of orange metal on the ground a few meters away from them. He started walking over towards it, Keira, Torn and the guards following his lead.

They reached the vent and then stood around it, looking down at it. But instead of the steady stream of yellow gas like eco that Jak had seen emitting from it the last time he had seen it, there was only a few thin yellow wisps rising from the opening. The group stood staring at it for a while in silent disappointment.

"Just like the blue eco one," Keira commented softly, breaking the silence. "There must be the same problem wrong with the yellow eco silo," her look turned thoughtful.

"What do we do now?" Torn asked unhappily, shifting from one foot to the other.

Jak continued to stare at the vent, his eyes blank with memories. "We could always go up to Snowy Mountain and investigate the silo," he finally said. "I have been there before, so I know how to get to it."

Everyone turned to gaze to the mountain that rose up behind them, its white peaks pushing up through the clouds and into the open sky.

"Wait a minute, I don't think we should go up their again!" Daxter announced with a frown. "That place is probably infested with monsters, and danger, and more monsters!"

"I thought you were up for a bit of adventure Dax," Jak teased, moving his shoulder so that it shook the ottsels body.

"Well yeah, but not to another place filled to the brim with metal monkeys! There is _no way_ you're gonna get me to go up there again. I nearly had a heart attack last time, what with you always slipping on the ice and nearly falling off the edge. Plus, the snow clings to my fur," he added the last part as a kind of mumble, then crossed his arms and put a defiant expression on his furry face.

"The transport can't even fly that high anyway, and it could take us days to scale that thing on foot," Torn pointed out irritably, trying to ignore the ottsel's annoying outburst "Even longer with my men in their full armor with heavy weapons."

Jak grimaced at the thought of hiking for days in the cold, and then turned around to look at the open mouth of the huge cave that stood at the end of the valley. A thought hit him.

"When Daxter and I went up there, we used a lift system near the red sages hut, deep within those caves," he finished by pointed at the cave entrance he had been looking at.

"Do you think it would still be there after all this time?" Keira asked, her brow creasing with concern.

Jak shrugged. "I don't know," he said simply, "but we can always try. The cave system will take us straight there, and it shouldn't take us too long going through in the transport."

"Can the transport fit through the caves?" Torn asked sceptically, raising one eyebrow.

Jak thought for a moment again. "Actually… there are some bits that are a bit narrow… but it can at least get us part the way though. We can do the rest on foot," he nodded at Torn.

Torn nodded back. "Alright, let's get going then," he said as he turned back to the transport vehicle, pulling out a communicator in order to inform HQ of their plans.

"Hey wait a minute!" Daxter exclaimed, "Didn't anybody hear what I just said? About the monsters and the danger and the more monsters and the horrible cold snow?" he jumped up and down on Jak's shoulder armor, trying to get the groups attention. "Hello? This is a BAD idea guys."

"It's alright Dax, we've done it before, and this time we have backup," Jak tried to console his furious friend.

Daxter crossed his arms again and pouted, sitting down on Jak's shoulder. "Fine. But this time, watch out for the ice would you?" he said irritably.

"Don't worry whisker-puss, I'll protect you," Tess reassured from Keira's shoulder as they started to walk back towards the transport. The comment didn't appear to improve Daxter's mood.

Suddenly the panicked, helmet distorted voice of one of the guards echoed across the valley. "Metal heads!" he shouted as everyone turned to face him, "their crawling down the cliffs!" Everyone turned their gaze to the cliffs surrounding the valley and saw large groups of leaper and ape metal heads coming over the top and crawling down the rocky faces. Jak spun around the look at the cliff behind him and saw the same scene there too. Turning again he saw ape and large four legged blaster metal heads coming out of the mouth of the cave.

All the guards instantly took up their weapons, aiming laser pointers at the grey metal bodies. Torn took out his twin pistols that hung by his hips, and Jak's hand quickly pull his morph gun from his back, instinctually changing to the blaster mod.

"Take 'em out!" Torn ordered, and their guards open fired on the small army that was just starting the reach the valley floor, Torn shooting along with them. Jak heard Daxter gulp on his shoulder, and then looked over and Keira and Tess, who both looked rather scared but were trying not to show it.

"Keira, get inside the transport," Jak said, pushing her roughly towards the ramp. She stopped at the based and looked back and his hard set face for a moment, before turning and running up the ramp, the door closing up behind her.

Jak turned back to face the oncoming enemy, his eyebrows narrowing. He ran forward and staring shooting rapidly, his shots taking the tightly grouped metal heads to the chest or head, felling them instantly. But just as quickly the fallen were replaced by others from behind, the metal heads not seeming to care about trampling their own dead before the bodies disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke.

The guards let off shots equally as earnestly, some switching to grenade shots in attempts to blast holes in the enemy ranks before they approached close quarters. And then the enemy was upon them, the leaper metal heads dancing around the battle field while the apes tried to tackle the nearest guards. Though metal heads had stopped streaming over the cliff, they still greatly outnumbered the small force of humans.

Jak moved swiftly around the battlefield, taking out as many metal heads as quickly as he could manage, constantly switching between gun types for varying situations. He would shoot a leaper out of the air here, send a peacemaker shot into a group of ape types there, and take down a blaster type with a volley of Vulcan fury rounds every now and again. But though Jak was good at avoiding the enemy attacks, his guard allies were not so quick, and many had already fallen with severe wounds or had been killed.

Eventually only Jak, Torn, who was also pretty good at holding his own, and two of the guards remained, and they were being pushed back into a sheer cliff together by a wall of the enemy. They fired as rapidly as they could but kept having to retreat from the onslaught of enemy attacks.

Jak was just letting off his last peacemaker round into the front line of metal heads when he heard a muffled scream sounding across the valley. He looked in the direction that the sound had come from and saw the transport surrounded by metal heads, many of them leaping onto its metal surface and trying to tear it apart. The large blaster type metal heads were attempting to blow apart the metal side with powered purple shots. The scream must have come from Keira as the transport was rocked back and forth from the weights dropping onto it and shots being fired into it.

Jak stopped firing at the metal heads that surrounded them, his eyebrows narrowing as he watched the onslaught on the transport. He felt anger boiling up inside of him, rage overtaking his mind and his instincts flared. He gun fell from his hands and clattered on the ground at his feet as black claws sprung from his fingers. The advancing metal heads checked for a moment, watching the transformation from cream to white skin, blue to pure black eyes, and black horns growing up out of white hair.

A leaper metal head that was scratching furiously at the top of the transport didn't know what had hit it when it was suddenly smacked into from the side, causing it to fly off to the side. Dark Jak leaped from one metal head to the other on top of the vehicle, sending them flying off from a swipe of his claws or kick to the body.

Once the top of the vehicle was clear Dark Jak jumped down into the ranks of enemy surrounding it. He moved quickly and unpredictably between his foes as he took them out with vicious attacks, purple lightening dancing between his body and theirs. He jumped up on the back of one of the large four legged blaster metal heads and gripped one of its large arms with both his hands, ripping the limb from the creature's body. The creature twisted around as it screamed in pain, trying to swipe at the dark warrior with its other arm. Dark Jak leaped into the air away from the attack, quickly creating a dark ball of energy in his hands and sending it flying down onto the head of the enemy, where it exploded with the impact.

The metal heads near the cliff abandoned their attacks on the other three soldiers, instead turning their attention towards the greater threat which had already almost taken out half their number. Dark Jak retreated to stand a little way away from the transport vehicle, his ebony eyes watching the approaching enemy. He waited until the metal head were near, almost surrounding him, and then he leaped into to air again, bringing one fist down to slam into the ground as he landed.

A wave of dark energy rippled out from the point of impact, rushing towards the metal heads, which didn't have the time to move out of the way. The dark energy cut through the enemy ranks, picking up metal heads and tossing them in all directions as dark lightening zapped through their bodies. Metal head bodies fell to the ground all around, lying there only a moment before disappearing.

Jak, his dark eco energy spent, painfully reverted back to his normal form, falling to his knees on the ground and panting. He had put near all his energy into the battle and felt exhausted. But yet, a small smirk appeared on his face as he looked around the battle field, not a single metal head remaining. He turned his head to look up at Daxter, who wore the same smirk, and they both nodded at each other.

Jak slowly got to his feet and started walking across to the transport again just as its door was reopening. He looked over at Torn and the two remaining guards, who were standing near the body of one of their fallen comrades, fists placed across their armored chests. Torn looked sullen.

Jak head whipped back around as he head steps coming quickly down the metal ramp of the transport, and saw Keira rushing towards him with a smile on her face. Daxter quickly jumped off Jak's shoulder before the girl crashed into him, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"You saved us!" Keira exclaimed gratefully, pressing her head into Jak's shoulder. Jak looked awkward with his arms in the air, shocked into not knowing what to do, but then gently placed them around Keira's shoulder. "I thought they were going to break in," Keira went on, her voice now muffled. Tess more casually walked up towards the group as the two humans separated from each other. Daxter wandered over to his girlfriend.

"Did ya see me out their Tess baby, whooping metal butt?" Daxter asked in his usually arrogant manner, giving the blonde ottsel a cocky grin.

"Oh yes, you were very brave, my hero," Tess giggled jokingly, leaning over to give Daxter a peck on the cheek.

"Yeah, I showed those metal monkeys a thing or two," Daxter said, his ego sailing to new heights even though he hadn't actually done anything.

The two humans chuckled at the ottsel couple, but their expressions turned serious when Torn approached them, still wearing the sullen look.

"We lost some good men, but at least we won the battle," he said bitterly. "Good work out their Jak," he added, nodding at the blonde.

"You know me, always happy to help," Jak replied with a smile in a slightly sarcastic manner.

"What about me?" Daxter exclaimed, offended that he had been overlooked once again.

Torn grimaced, one of his eyes twitching slightly. "Don't make me waste my breath on you, rat," he ground out though clenched teeth.

Before Daxter could retort Jak cut in. "I am sorry about your men," he said.

Torn closed his eyes and waved a hand at Jak dismissively. "They have done their duty, and will be honored when we return. Sadly, we must leave their bodies here if we are to continue on with our mission. I am unhappy to do so, but duty comes first."

Jak nodded. "Let's hurry on then, before there are any more attacks," he said curtly, and turned to walk with Keira towards the transport.

A short while later, after Jak had retrieved his morph gun and everyone was aboard, the transport lifted off once more, turning and hovering off into the mouth of the cavern.


	5. Chapter 4: Ominous Omens

Authors note: Took me a little longer to get round to this than I thought. Already writing the next chapter though. :)

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><p>The small group of humans and ottsels stepped through a large opening in the wall at the end of the long tunnel they had just traversed. They walked into a large cavern, or maybe crater, because it had no roof and was open to the sky. The whole room was lit up by the oozing and bubbling larva that filled the bottom of it, contained within the massive walls that reached up high above. A rope and wood bridge extended out in front of the group, over the larva to a small building that stood on metal stilts in the middle of the area, balancing precariously above the molten rock.<p>

Another place that brought back memories for Jak. It hadn't changed much over the last few hundred years, tucked away as it was in the concealed location, and the rock walls surrounding would have protected it from the weather. The remaining blue guards eyed the old, unstable bridge, but Jak just pushed past them and wandered onto it as if he hadn't noticed the worn ropes and rotting planks.

Walking around the red sages hut, Jak peaked in through the doorway on his way past. Almost everything that had once been inside it was gone, pieces of eco equipment, books and papers, furniture; all vanished due to pillaging or the slow rotting of time. Now the wooden hut was just an empty shell, with a deactivated teleport gate hanging on the back wall. Jak walked on, across the next bridge and onto the solid rock ledge on the other side of the cavern.

As he heard Keira footsteps coming up behind him, he turned his gaze to the gondola that had once carried him and Daxter up to the peaks of Snowy Mountain which lay just above this place. However, it didn't much resemble a wooden lifting device any longer, more a pile of rotting wood. Jak's eyes tuned to the wall which the gondola carrying rope had once hung, but they were long gone. The lift was unusable… they had come all this way for nothing.

As Jak sighed in disappointment, he felt a hand softly touch his shoulder. "Maybe there is another way?" Keira voice came from behind him. He slowly turned around to face her and Tess, who sat on the girls shoulder.

"Could we get a Hellcat in here to lift us up?" Jak wondered aloud, looking back at the cliff and trying to judge its height.

Keira slowly shook her head. "Besides trying to get it in here in the first place, the heat of the larva would overheat the engine," she said dismally. "Plus, there isn't much room to manoeuvre in."

"Why can't it ever be easy?" Daxter complained from Jak's shoulder, "Now we have to go all the way back down the tunnel and still figure out how to get to a place I don't want to go." Even though he didn't actually have to do any of the walking he acted as exhausted as if he had.

"… What about something that lifts straight up though?" Jak asked as a thought came to him. "And that doesn't have an engine?"

Keira looked confused. "What would that be?"

"A lurker balloon," Jak said with a grin, and then pulled a communicator out of his jacket pocket. "Brutter?" he said into it, then waited a few seconds for a reply.

"Is that you, brother Jak?" a gruff, accented voice came through the speaker.

"Yeah. Brutter, I was wondering if I could ask you another favour."

"Of course, lurker people do anything for friends," Brutter replied ecstatically. "What you need help with, brother?"

"We need a lurker balloon to get up to Snowy Mountain," Jak explained, "we are currently in the larva cave under the mountain… near the larva tubes and spider caves… do you know were that is?"

There was a thoughtful silence for a moment. "Oh yes, lurkers know where that is, been through there many times, we come get you right away," the transmission ended and the communicator shrunk.

Jak and Keira smiled at one another, before turning to Torn and his men who were waiting behind them. "I got us a ride," Jak gave them a cocky grin, Daxter mimicking it on his shoulder.

"Good job. When will they get here?" Torn asked, trying not to sound impressed.

Jak shrugged. "Soon enough. We just have to wait here."

"That's fine," said Torn, crossing his arms and moving off to the side to stand by himself. The two guards walked past Jak and Keira and sat down on some flattish rocks poking up from the ground. Keira's eyes flickered to the sages hut and then back to Jak.

"I think I'll go and see if there is anything left…" she said as she indicated to the hut. Jak simply nodded and the girl turned to walk back across the bridge.

Jak was just about to follow her when a strange feeling stopped him. _Come to me, one with the light. _A deep but soft voice whispered in Jak's head. He stopped in mid-step.

"Hey, Jak, what are you doing buddy?" Daxter asked, confused. The girls had already disappeared though the door of the red sages hut.

"The oracle wants to see me," Jak said in a faraway voice, his eyes partially glazed over as if he was in a trance. He blinked and he was normal again, and then turned to walk the other way.

"What? That old goober eyed thing is still here? Man," Daxter remarked. "But those guys are so boring Jak, all they do is say mumbo jumbo stuff that no one understands or cares about," Daxter began to complain as they made their way down the stone steps to the alcove of the oracle.

As Jak approached the statue of precursor metal its large glassy eyes lit up with a blue glow, which stopped Daxter's whining.

"Greetings once again hero," a deep, ancient voice rumbled from the statue. "It has been many years since we last met. So few have passed through here since, only the late red sage and a few bands of lurkers."

Jak sat down in front on the statue, cross-legged on the ground, with Daxter flopped down over his shoulder, looking bored. "What... happened to him, the sage?" Jak asked as he looked up into the large round eyes.

"When you opened the rift gate and let the metal heads into this era, they destroyed all of the sages for fear of the powers they wielded," the oracle said indifferently.

Jak eyes widened, and then closed. "Yet more lives destroyed because of me..."

"But I have not called you here to talk of such things," the precursor statue went on, "I called you in order to warn you. The path you take leads to great danger. You will have to finish what you once started, and begin what you have already ended. Only then can the events that have shaped the fate of this world run full circle."

Daxter lifted his head and stared at the oracle for a moment. "Well thanks for the help, mister couldn't get any vaguer. Good grief, these guys are worse than Onin and Seem combined," Daxter said exasperatedly, dragging a furry paw over his face.

"Wait, didn't Onin say the same sort of thing… the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning?" Jak wondered aloud, looking from the oracle to Daxter and then back to the oracle again. "What danger?" he asked the statue.

But the statue was silent, the blue glow gradually fading from its eyes. It was obvious that it wasn't going to give them any clearer clues about their destiny, as usual.

"Don't waste your breath buddy, these guys get off on being mysterious and all," Daxter commented sarcastically as Jak got to his feet, taking one last look at the statue before walking back the way he came.

As Jak made his way back up the stone steps the sunlight shining down on them from above was blotted out by a large shadow. Jak looked up to see a large balloon tied to as wooden platform descended into the area. The guards got to their feet, Torn turned around and Keira emerged from the hut, all looking up at the jollily waving lurkers standing on the platform. The lurkers touched down on the rocky ledge, and one of them hopped out onto the stone. Jak grinned as he approached Brutter, and the lurker returned the smile.

"Hello again brother Jak his little orangey pal!" Brutter exclaimed, grabbing Jak's hand with a large paw and shaking it viciously. "It is good to see you again yes. We brings balloon to helps you to top of mountain."

"It's good to see you again to, Brutter, and thanks," Jak gingerly rubbed the hand that the lurker hand finally let go of.

"Yes, lurker people always happy to help friends, but Brutter wonders why you want to go to top of mountain anyways? Not much up there, you looking for something? Maybe lurkers help with that too, know mountain well, tribe of brothers live up there yes?" Brutter rattled off enthusiastically.

"We are just going to check out the eco silo, its fine, I know where it is," Jak waved the lurker down.

"Okay then, well, all aboard, we takes you up now!" Brutter announced, motioning for the humans and ottsels to come onto the platform.

It was a short float up to the snowy heights, the wooden platform touching down gently on the thick snow.

The companions hopped off, and then turned to watch the balloon slowly take to the air again.

"You be careful up on mountain brother Jak, is very dangerous," Brutter called out in warning as the balloon he was on began to move away.

Jak gave him a reassuring salute, before turning to his other friends. "Everyone just follow me, and stay close," Jak said, before turning and walking off through the snow.

After struggling through knee deep snow, sliding across perilous ice, and scrambling up and down many small cliffs, they finally stood in front of the wooden fenced lurker fortress. The gate was shut, and there was no one to be seen around. The only sounds were the howl of the mountain winds and Keira's chattering teeth as she shivered; she had not come in appropriate dress for this weather.

Tess had wrapped her body around the back of the human girl's neck, almost acting like a scarf, though there was not much else she could do to help warm her friend. Jak noticed Keira's shivering, and being the courteous person he was, took off his jacket and draped it across her shoulders, wrapping it around her thin frame. Keira grasped the jacket around her, looking up at him with silent thanks.

"This way," Jak muttered as he turned towards the right, making his way towards a small copse of pine trees up against a tall cliff wall. His comrades followed him through the trees and the secret hole in the cliff behind them.

Only a few steps forward and they were standing at the edge of a precipice, which dropped off into a chasm so deep that they could not see the bottom, only blackness. The soldiers glanced down into the void, scuffing their boots in the snow nervously. Torn frowned, and then looked around him, seeing the opening in the wall to their right, yet a fair few feet above their level. A slope lead up to it, but was covering in slippery ice, making it unclimbable. Torn's eyebrows narrowed.

"Well, how are we supposed to get up there?" he asked in annoyance, glancing unhappily at the dangerous route around the left wall.

Jak looked up at the opening, as if judging the height, and then turned to his comrades. "We don't all need to go up there, I'll just fly Keira up there and we'll check it out." He said and looked at Keira, to check if that was okay with her. The teal haired girl blushed and then nodded quickly.

"You guys can stay here and keep watch," Jak offered to Torn. Torn grunted in agreement.

Jak closed his eyes briefly and his body exploded with white light. Once it the blinding flash had dissipated a soft blue glow covered Jak's skin and clothes, and tentacles of light sprouting from his back, thin membranes of light stretched between them. Eyes of pure light stared out from a clam face. Keira slowly stepped towards Jak, and he towards her, his arms outstretched. Two ottsels came face to face as Jak wrapped his arms around Keira's body.

"Hang on!" warned Daxter, gripping tight to the shoulder armour just before Jak crouched and then shot up into the air. Keira gasped, her hands grabbing around Jak's neck. His wings snapped open, beating powerfully to lift them higher as they flew across the chasm. It was over quickly though, Jak landing on the higher ledge and then reverting in a smaller flash of blue sparks.

"Woah, that's cool," one of the guards on the lower ledge commented, and got an elbow in the shoulder from Torn.

Jak and Keira wandered into the large ice cavern, looking up at the eco silo in the center, its precursor metal glinting in the sunlight which penetrated through the ice ceiling. They walked up one of the spiralling ramps that surrounded the silo, their footsteps echoing around the cavern.

"What could be wrong with it?" Jak asked, scratching his head as they reached the top and looked down at the top of the silo, where the eco control switch lay. It was pushed down into the on position, meaning eco should be flowing freely from the silo.

"I am not really sure... it all seems normal..." Keira wondered as she knelt down on the metal walk way, peering down at the silo. "Oh, I wish I had spent more time studying this stuff... if only father was here, he might be able to figure it out quicker..." she sighed in desperation.

Just then, Daxter's ears perked up as he peered over the other side of the apparatus. "Hey, what's than thing?" he asked, pointing. The others turned to see what he was looking at, and noticed a large black tube lying on the ground on the other side of the silo, one end going into a hole in the wall and the other disappearing under the silo.

Both Jak and Keira raised an eyebrow. "That wasn't there before..." Jak trailed off, confused. He and Keira walked around the top of the silo and down one of the ramps on the other side to investigate. Once they reached the ground they saw that the black pipe was actually attached to the bottom of the silo. The humans approached closer, observing that the precursor metal was ripped open to make a small hole through which the pipe had been inserted.

Jak and Keira looked at each other as realisation dawned. "Someone is using the eco..." Keira said softly, crouching down near the end of the pipe to examine it closely.

"But who? And what for?" Daxter exclaimed.

"Perhaps someone is trying to make a weapon…" Tess said, jumping off Keira shoulder onto the cool floor.

"Lurkers...?" Keira asked hesitantly.

Jak shook his head. "I don't think so... they wouldn't have the technology or tools..."

"The metal heads then?" Keira suggested.

"Maybe... perhaps we should try and find out..." Jak said, then walked over to the wall which the pipe protruded from, peering into the dark space around the tube. "It seems to go straight up..." he turned his blue eyes towards the ice roof.

"Wait, you want go after the metal heads? Again?" Daxter said nervously, looking around the room.

Jak rolled his eyes. "We don't know if it is the metal heads Dax, and we need to find out who is using so much eco, and what for," he explained.

"Let's go back and tell the others," said Tess who was standing behind them while Keira was intensely investigating.

They all slid down the ice slope to get back down to the lower edge, Keira squealing as she slid across the cold surface on her bottom. As soon as he reached the bottom Jak jumped to his feet, unfazed. Keira took a little longer to get to her feet, rubbing her backside.

"So, what's up?" Torn asked, his arms crossed over his chest again.

"Someone is siphoning eco from the silo," Jak explained, "They are transporting it though a pipe to... somewhere. We think the pipe comes out over the top of the cave, we should head over there now."

Torn nodded. "We'll be there to back you up, just lead the way."

With that, the small group turned around and walked back out the opening and into the snow.


	6. Chapter 5: Perilous Path

Authors note: I meant to post this up sooner but I didn't get a chance to edit it for ages.

Some things in this chapter may seem a bit unrealistic but I hope you can think about them and see how they could work. :)

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><p>The small team of humans and ottsels managed to make their way around the mountain and up to the ice cover of the cavern with little mishap. They instantly saw the black pipe protruding from the snow at the edge of the ice. It then wound up a small rise and off up another peak of the mountain.<p>

"That won't be easy to follow," Torn commented disdainfully.

"I'll go take a look," Jak said, and promptly changed into his light form, flapping up from ledge to ledge to climb the peak.

He reached the top which the pipe was laid over, and looked out. His eyes followed the pipe down the other side of the rise, down the rocky side of the mountain, and across the high country to...

A few seconds later Jak landed heavily in the snow in a crouch in front of his comrades. Dissipating his light power he stood up to face them.

"The pipe goes on a long way," he informed, and then turned especially to Keira, "... towards Gol and Maia's citadel." He said the last part in a solemn tone.

Keira's expression became serious. "What are they doing there?"

Jak shrugged. "We should go and check it out. But the country between here and there is too rough to cross on foot, besides trying to get down the mountain. And there are strong winds that rule out the balloon as an option."

A dismal silence ensued, broken by, surprisingly, a loud... chirp?

Everyone spun around to stare with confusion at the direction where the sound had come from. And to their surprise there was a blue and yellow blur streaking towards them. No one really had time to react as the streak crashed right into Jak, knocking him over on to his back in the snow and sending Daxter flying from his shoulder across the ice.

The apparition quickly got to its feet once more and turned in the direction that the ottsel had flown. "Maaamaaaa!" it exclaimed shrilly, and quickly ran over to where Daxter had fallen.

Everyone simply gaped as they watched the large blue and yellow bird nudge the small ottsel with its beak, chirping and cooing happily. Jak dragged himself to his feet and stared with them.

"Geta offa me you horrible animal!" Daxter cried out, trying to use his small arms to push the bird away from him, to no avail.

"The… Flut Flut bird?" said Jak in complete confusion, his head spinning. "But... can't be... Keira?" he looked over to his girlfriend.

Keira seemed just as shocked and unable to answer, but as she looked back at Jak she noticed Torn and the guards behind him pointing their guns at the bird. "No, don't! It's okay, it's a friendly creature," she explained, walking over to them and putting her hand on one of their guns, pushing the tip down and away from the bird. The bird hadn't seemed to have noticed, it was still happily pushing at Daxter with its head, while Tess looked on amused.

"What the hell is that thing?" Torn asked angrily, holstering his guns.

"It's a Flut Flut bird... you mean you have never seen one before?" she asked, intrigued. Torn shook his head.

"Urr.. I think I once saw one... a picture of one, in a book. I didn't think they were real," one of the guards piped up.

Keira rubbed her forehead. "Then the only explanation I can think of," she said as she turned back to Jak, "is that it must have followed us through the rift gate, and ended up here."

"Hey, isn't anyone gonna help me over here? This bird is crazy!" Daxter's frustrated voice sounded across the ice as he struggled under the Flut Flut's boisterous affection.

"More like followed Daxter," Jak concluded with a smirk. He walked over to the two ottsels and bird, and grabbed Daxter by the scruff of the neck, pulling him out from right under the Flut Flut's beak. He stuck the ruffled ottsel back up on his shoulder, where Daxter sagged with relief. The Flut Flut turned around and came up close to Jak, leaning down and rubbing its head against him. Jak stroked the top of the birds head with one hand softly.

"Don't do that Jak, you're encouraging it!" Daxter warned, leaning away from the bird with a disgusted look on his face. Jak smiled at that.

Keira approached them. "The poor thing, it would have been so alone up here. I wonder how long it has been here," she said sadly. The Flut Flut simply chirped and ran over to her, butting at her shoulder playfully.

"... It's been here before," Jak said simply, to a response of blank stares. "We warped it up here to help me go cross country to get a power cell... maybe it could help again..." he looked at the bird thoughtfully.

"Yeah, it can help us get to the citadel. Although... it might only be able to carry one person... at most two..." Keira replied uncertainly.

"Dax and I will go," Jak said promptly.

Keira put her hands on her hips. "Oh no you don't. You're not leaving me behind again while you go off on one of your adventures," she said sternly. "I'm coming along too."

Jak seemed surprised. "But, you would be safer with Torn," he protested.

"I'm sticking by you to the end, whether you like it or not," she pushed further.

"Alright," Jak caved, not wanting to fight anymore with her strong will. He looked at the Flut Flut. "I think it can carry us, it seems to have grown a bit since before."

"Okay," Keira agreed, and they went back over to the others, Daxter taking refuge on Jak's head to get away from the ever loving Flut Flut who walked beside him, Tess sitting up on its saddle holding her sides with laughter.

"Keira and I will use the Flut Flut to go on ahead," Jak explained, "you guys can go back to the transport and wait for us. Call Brutter to get the luker balloon to take you down,"

"I don't like this, you going off alone. This was supposed to be a team mission," Torn muttered in frustration.

"Don't worry, we can handle is" Jak reassured, swinging up onto the back on the Flut Flut bird. Tess jumped onto Keira's shoulder and then Jak held out a hand to help Keira climb up. Once she was seated behind him he took up the reins in both hands. "We'll call as soon as we find out anything. Keep safe."

Torn grunted and nodded. "You too. You better come back alive, you hear me?"

Jak treated them to a cocky grin, before pulling on the reins and the bird took off at a run, jumping and fluttering up the rise Jak and surmounted moments before.

The Flut Flut hopped agilely from one ledge to the other, climbing down the mountain to the rough high country below. It was large expanse of jagged rocky ground littered with boulders, which could have taken ages for humans to climb across alone. It was no problem for the nimble bird though, which fluttered from one rock to another, following the trail of the large black pipe. A way along the group noticed another black pipe which came up out of the ground and then ran alongside the first.

"They must be taking out eco too," Keira assumed, looking along the new pipe. "What could they need so much for?"

Jak was scanning the area around when a sudden horrendous shriek rang through his ears. His head snapped in the direction of the noise, and he spotted a dark shape moving towards them across the rocks. It had the same agility and speed as the Flut Flut, if not superior, and was quickly gaining on them. As the creature came closer Jak noticed it had a grey shiny carapace set over black skin, and a yellow skull gem shone brightly in its head. It was raptorial in form, like a Flut Flut or leaper lizard, a new type of metal head that Jak had not encountered before. Powerful back legs pushed the metal head from one rock to another, its smaller front legs which ended in long black claws curled up near its chest and it's long straight tail balancing it. It opened its beak like snout and shrieked at him again, showing of rows of small sharp fangs.

Jak's head snapped back around to the noise of another shriek sounded from his right. Another of the raptor metal heads was gaining from that angle as well. As he turned back to the other side to check the first enemy and saw that more had joined it, running alongside. The Flut Flut squawked in fear, its dilated pupils shifting around in all directions trying to see that danger, but it didn't stop. It put some extra energy into a burst of speed, trying to stay ahead of the metal heads, but they were still gaining on them.

They finally got to the end of the rock field and onto flat dirt plains. Here the Flut Flut could pick up further speed, streaking across the plain on its strong thick legs. Unfortunately, the metal heads were also advantaged on the flat, and with their lighter weight were still gaining. As Jak watched them over his shoulder, he knew something would have to be done about the growing pack of raptors behind them.

"Watch out," Jak said, and then grabbed hold on the saddle with one hand. Then in one deft move he pushed himself out of his seat, swung around Keira and landed back on the Flut Flut, now sitting behind her.

"Take the reins," Jak said to the surprised girl, pushing gently against her back so that she would shuffle forwards in the saddle. As she took up the leather reins Jak turned himself around on the saddle so he was facing the beasts behind them. He whipped out his morph gun, changing it to the Vulcan setting and took aim at the gaining metal heads, tightening his thighs around the bird to keep his seat.

Hoping that his shots wouldn't scare the Flut Flut further, he open fired on the nearest raptor. Streaking blue bullets slammed into the chest carapace of the metal head, though many missed and flew past. "Damn," Jak said as he tried to hold the gun steady, but the up and down motion of the ride was throwing his aim off. He wished he wasn't out of dark ammo; it would have really helped in this situation. He continued to attempt to keep the monsters back with sweeping fire across the group. He managed to fell a good half of the beasts before he ran out of blue ammo.

As he changed to the standard morph, the beasts were upon him. The one in front swiped at him, and would have caught his arm had it not received a blast in the face. Its companions trampled its body as it fell to the ground, its skull gem flying out of its socket. Jak managed to keep them back with the large blast radius of the gun. He felt Keira tensing behind him since their backs were touching.

Just when Jak was becoming concerned about his ammo level, the metal heads suddenly slowed down, peeling off to the left and right, turning back the way they came. Jak sighed with relief and sunk into his seat. "They've given up," he breathed.

"Yeah, you better run, ya metal pussies!" Daxter revelled, raising a furry fist into the air. "We taught them not to mess with us."

Jak gave a weak smile and closed his eyes, his body jerking around on the seat as the Flut Flut continued on. Jak straightened up again and then craned his neck around to see in front of them. The citadel, once precursor temple, loomed up in front of them, its orange metal sides gleaming in the late afternoon sun. Another precursor metal structure rose up out of the ground next to the citadel, reaching up as high into the sky. It was the dark eco silo, which contained the largest amount of dark eco in their known world. Jak turned around in his seat to get more comfortable.

Reds and oranges streaked the horizon as the Flut Flut pulled up in front of the tower, next to a round precursor door. Jak leaped off the bird's back, and then leant a hand to Keira to help her down. The large blue bird chirped and ruffled its feather. Jak and Keira turned their gazes to look at the citadel; the black pipes that had crossed the rock field and dirt plains came up to the base and then rose straight up the side of the tower, as far as the eye could see. The humans stepped up to the door, the ottsels riding on their shoulders.

Once they were about a foot away from the door way the spiralling panels that made up its surface slid away to reveal the entrance. Jak and Keira stepped forth into the dark room beyond, trying to peer around as their eyes adjusted to the dim. The smell of the place was thick and musty, as if the air had not been disturbed for a long while. Once they could see though the gloom the saw that the room lead to a staircase, descending into the earth. There seemed to be no alternate route. Keira turned to look at Jak, who simply shrugged and walked over to the staircase.

They descended into a rock cavern lit by the glow of larva which was coming from the left. Over that way was a round tunnel extending off into the distance, its bottom filled with molten rock. Hanging a way above the larva was some sort of walkway made from interweaved strips of precursor metal, which ended just near the rock ledge they now stood on. Directly across from the stair was another precursor door embedded into the rock. And to their right was a small wooden hut hanging just off the stone ledge. Next to the hut hung an inactive warp gate. Near the warp gate a ring of precursor metal was embedded into the ground, a half sphere of glowing blue in the middle of it. Floating above the blue dome was an old hover vehicle, pieced together from many different metals, a small propeller on its front.

"My Zoomer!" Keira exclaimed in delight, running across to it. She looked over her beloved machine, planning a hand on its metal side. A warm smile of adoration spread across her face. Jak smiled in turn at her behaviour. "I can't believe that it still here after all this time..."

"We can take it back with us later if you like," Jak said, trying to hide his amusement.

"Oh yes please," Keira cried happily, turning around and clasping her hands in front of her.

"Yeah, but for now, we have to try to get to the top of this tower... again," Jak said, turning to look at the precursor door. "I don't expect you to get through all those dangerous obstacles, but I think I have enough light eco left to get us up to the elevator."

Keira nodded. Though she wanted to feel as though she could be brave and do all the dangerous stuff Jak did, she wasn't nearly as athletic or agile as him, and knew she probably couldn't make those jumps. "Okay, let's go,"

"Wait a minute guys, I'm getting a real bad feeling about this!" Daxter piped in, "Remember what happened the last time we went up there? We didn't exactly get a warm welcome! And I don't think people are going to be stealing our eco for any good reason."

"That's why we have to confront them," Jak said firmly.

"Oh man, why did I ever want to tag along on this trip?" Daxter moaned, his shoulders sagging.

"You can always stay here," Jak pointed out as he walked towards the door.

"Alone? I don't think so! I don't trust this place either, I'm gonna stick with the guy with the gun," Daxter announced, though somewhat grudgingly.

"Whatever, let's get moving," Jak said, walking through the round door and into the corridor beyond.

A figure of bright light sailed through the dark air of the large citadel, transparent wings flapping strongly to lift it towards the hanging central column of precursor metal. Another figure was being carried by the first, and was trying not to look down into the dark abyss stretching out below them. The figure landed heavily on the wooden platform surrounding the column, in front of yet another round precursor door. A flash and the light was gone, Jak left rubbing his head where the light being had stood.

"Well, I'm out of light eco now," he announced.

"But… how are we supposed to get back down?" Daxter asked.

"… I hadn't thought of that. I'm sure we'll find a way… we may just have to go down the hard way…"

Daxter put his palm to his face, but didn't comment further.

"Let's just go and find out what's going on, we can worry about this later," Jak evaded the problem and stepped through the door into the elevator. Both Keira and Tess rolled their eyes, mouthing 'boys' at each other before following them.

The door closed behind them and the large round platform that they stood on started to rise, slowly at first but then more quickly, zipping up past the levels, and then slowing down as it neared the top. It came to a halt at the very top of the tower. It was a perfectly round affair, with unmarried edges surrounding. And after meeting the sight up there, the mouths of everyone in the small group standing on the elevator hung open.


	7. Chapter 6: Revengeful Return

Authors note: Once again, sorry for the delay, had this written for a while but kept putting off editing it. :I

Things start moving along a bit more in this chapter, hope you enjoy.

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><p>The black pipes that the comrades had been following all day snaked up over the edge of the tower and across its shiny orange metal top. They lead over to a group of figures standing near the edge of the tower closest to the dark eco silo. The figures, of which there were five, were robots, their hard metal bodies painted in red. They stood around a tall contraption propping up the black pipes, holding them over gap to the dark eco silo. On the top there silo were several more red robots, tending to various unidentifiable devices connected to the black pipes.<p>

"What the hell? KG bots?" Jak asked without thinking.

"I thought we killed all those things!" Daxter exclaimed angrily.

The death bots, now alerted to the visitor's presence, turned around to face them. Four of them were identical to each other, and stood on either side of the fifth was slightly larger and shaped differently, with a strangely familiar mask covering its face.

"Well, look who has come to join the party," the larger bot commented, holding a mechanical arm out towards the group. "You're just in time to see the show." The bot proceeded to make some sort of mechanical choking sound, which the companion's then realized was some form of twisted laughter.

Jak's confusion made him angry. "What the hell is going on here?" Jak growled, clenching his fists. "Who are you anyway?"

"What, you have forgotten me already Jak?" the robot seem taken back, "How rude, I certainly have not forgotten you, and all the times you have tried to kill me," the robot gave a distorted snicker.

Jak glared at the red eyed mask with tightened eyes, and then realization dawned on him. "Errol!" he exclaimed in disbelief. "But how..?"

The robot was taken over by another bout of sickly laughter, one hand pressed against his side. "Amusing isn't it, how you continuously fail to destroy me? You may have blown up the dark maker with that blast, but it wasn't enough to kill me. I was flung from the explosion into the sand, wounded but still alive, and you didn't think to check for a body! Before the Spargans came back to search the wreckage I managed to escape into the wasteland and summon some of my troops to me. And as you can see, I have upgraded further, doing away with all my remaining weak human parts. Now I am stronger than ever!" he laughed again, though this time it turned into a hacking cough.

"You don't really sound like it," Daxter remarked with a roll of the eyes.

"Shut up you stupid rat!" Errol growled after he got control of his coughing.

Jak's green eyebrows had narrowed into a scowl. "What are you doing with our eco?" he demanded heatedly.

Errol turned his robotic head to inspect one of his mechanical hands held up near his head. "It was required in my plan for revenge upon this pathetic world for all it's done to me. It will be used to power my machines, which will open the dark eco silo and let this world be engulfed in darkness, destroying everything. As it so deserves," he explained calmly.

"But… wouldn't that kill you too?" Keira pointed out timidly.

"Fool. I have of course made a plan to save myself and my bots, by escaping this world," he gestured at something behind them. The humans and ottsels turned their heads to see what he was pointing at. Behind them floating in the air a few feet above the ground was a large ring of precursor metal, ancient text inscribed around its circumference. Within the ring a blue vortex swirled away into oblivion.

"A rift gate!" Keira exclaimed, staring at it. She turned her head back to Errol. "But where did you…?"

"I found it using a clue given to me by… my dear friend Jak, of course," Errol said with a certain pleasure. "When we took him into prison 4 years ago we confiscated all of his belongings, one of which was a power cell. Not thinking much of it at the time, I kept the trinket. But then I found this place, and saw that," he now pointed over to the large round precursor door the stood next to the rift ring. Its surface was still covered in shining power cells, all fitted into special sockets within the orange metal.

"One hundred power cells to open the door, yet it was always known that there was one hundred and one present in this region. Which was the one that I had," Errol continued, reveling in the explanation of his cleverness. "I knew that there must be some use for this final power cell, perhaps some other secret door that it could open. So I searched for the place that this last cell would fit into. And I found it, down in Mar's tomb. The cell opened a secret room to me, which contained the warp gate. That is when the starting seeds of my plan began to grow."

During Errol's speech the other robots had gone back to monitoring the satiation on top of the eco silo. Just then one of them turned and tapped his leader on his metal shoulder. "The machines are ready, my lord," it informed in a scratchy mechanical voice.

"Very good, call the last of the troops to the top of the tower and we shall begin," Errol instructed, and the bot gave him a salute before turning to speak into a communicator.

Errol turned back to the companions. "Actually, I am quite glad you could make it here to witness my greatest triumph," he said with a certain glee. "It will be so much more enjoyable to see your faces as you watch your world die." He broke into malicious laughter once again, which again turned into a bought of coughing which wracked his metal body.

The sound of whirring machinery filled the air, and as the bots turned on the machines on the dark eco silo. Seconds later a thunderous grinding sound tore through the air as the doors of the silo where slowly pulled apart.

"This world will not die; you'll never succeed," Jak said firmly. "Not while I am around!" he cried out before charging towards his robot nemesis, whipping out his morph gun as he ran.

Errol simply took a few steps back, unfazed, and the four other robots moved in front of him to protect him. Jak dodged to the side to escape a shot fired from one, and then had to suddenly come to a halt and then jump backwards and another flung itself towards him, attempting to strike him with one metal arm. Jak landed on his feet and then aimed the morph gun, firing at the chest of the closest bot. The yellow shots flew true, colliding with the robots metal chest plates, knocking it backwards slightly. Jak had to then dodge yet again to avoid more shots, and continued moving around in front of his enemies while he took shots at them.

Keira and Tess had backed away from the fighting towards the rift ring, trying to get out of range of the shots. Being defenseless, they both looked apprehensive, and watched the battle closely. Though the grinding roar of the silo doors filled their ears, Keira still noticed when a new noise became apparent. It was the hum of firing jet engines, and only second later many figures rose up around the tower they stood on. They were robots wearing jetpacks, and they swerved slightly from side to side as they hovered in the air.

Keira looked back at Jak, who was still fighting two remaining robots and hadn't seemed to notice the new arrivals. "Jak, look out!" Keira screamed, trying to be heard over all the noise.

Jak's head quickly whipped around in her direction, which allowed him to see the hovering enemies which were closing in on him.

"That's not good…" said Daxter, his ears flattening onto his head. Jak quickly retreated from the robots he had been fighting, aiming his gun now up at the flying ones, trying to figure out what to do.

He switched quickly to the red morph of the gun, to the grenade launcher. Aiming it upwards he sent a shot sailing through the air towards one of the flying bots, which exploded on contact with its metal armor. This disrupted the jet packs engines, which sent the bot spiraling off through the air and it fell away down the side of the tower. Spinning around quickly on the spot Jak repeated this on all the other flying bots, exploding some and sending others on an altered flight course, one smashing forcefully into the top on the tower.

The two robots that Jak had abandoned his fight with clacked across the metal floor towards them, but he hadn't forgotten about them. As soon as he had taken out the last flying robot he switch the weapon to the wave concussor, aiming it to the ground and giving it a quick charge before firing. The bots were only a few steps away from him by then and their legs were caught in the blast, dismembering them instantly. The legless bots squirmed around on the ground for a moment before Jak quickly gave each a yellow shot to the head.

Jak then turned his attention back to Errol, who was standing in a defensive pose across the roof. Jak left the dead bot bodies and ran over towards their leader, eyes flaming with hatred. When he got close he held up his gun to aim at the robot, but suddenly Errol leapt forward and landed directly in front of Jak, instantly grapping Jak's arms in his hands. Jak grunted as metal tightened around his forearms, and he yanked against the grip, trying to pull free. But though he struggled hard against the robot's grip he could not pull free. Digging his feet into the ground, Jak tried to hold his position, and so man and robot wrestled in place for several minutes.

As Jak struggled against the robot his upper lip curled up into a snarl and the color started to drain away from his face. Small black horns were just starting to push up through whitening hair when a loud cracking noise disrupted his transformation, and the grinding noise that had filled the air suddenly stopped. The two enemies abruptly relaxed their grip on each other and turned to look over that the top of the dark eco silo. The gates on top had now fully opened and the robots had moved to the rim near their machines. Through the huge opening lay a purple-black lake of dark eco, its surface rippling gently. The silo must have contained an unimaginable amount to the dark energy considering its great height and width.

Errol let go of Jak's arms and then took a few steps back, turning from the silo to him. With a laugh Errol said "It is open! Now my plan is almost complete. Watch the dark eco move, yearning to be free. Soon it will escape, and cover this world in darkness!" he held up one mechanical arm in victory.

Jak scowled and glanced over at the silo, watching the dark eco move around inside it, the rippling becoming more rigorous. But then suddenly its movement changed, and in the center of the lake the surface began to bubble furiously. The bubbling area began to spread outwards across the eco, and the bubbles in the middle made a small bulge. Suddenly something shot up out of the center of the eco and into the air above the silo. It stopped a few meters above the eco.

Now that the thing was stationary the people on the tower could see that it was a figure, no, maybe two figures. They floated in the air, dark eco sliding and dripping off their forms. And in the center of one of the figures was a large bright green glow.

Jak walked over to the very edge of the tower, peering over at the figures, trying to figure out who or what they were. But as his eyes scanned over their bodies, now with less dark eco obscuring them, recognition hit him.

_The dark eco… probably destroyed them. _Samos's words echoed in Jak head as he stared at the two figures which were now slowly floating over towards the tower. As they got closer their forms could be discerned easier. They were both humanoid in form with long ears, but their skins were dark grey. They both had long pale hair, though one had a more solid straight form while the one with the green glow had feminine curves. The male wore a dark cloak while the female wore tight fitting brown leather with pieces of precursor metal armor. Once the last of the dark eco had gone, the green glow could be identified as a giant green gemstone, held in the woman's arms.

"Gol… and Maia…" Jak growled as the figures approached.

"How do you know who we are, imprudent brat?" Maia demanded as she scowled down at him.

"Dear sister," Gol wheezed in his cracked voice while he inspected Jak, "He seems familiar. I think this may be that young man who tried to kill us… Jak," Gol stroked his goatee with two long grey fingers.

Maia blinked in disbelief, looking from her brother to the blonde standing in front of them. "What?" she cried in outrage, "Still around after all this time? How can that be? We were trapped in there for centuries!"

"Now now sister, I would have thought you would be happy to see our hero friend again…" Gol smiled sinisterly.

Maia raised one eyebrow, and then returned the smile. "Oh yes… now we can have our revenge," she said maliciously, looking down at Jak with hungry eyes.

"You don't know who you're dealing with," Jak growled.

"Yeah, we beat you once, we can do it again!" Daxter said, brandishing a small furry fist at the twins.

"Ah yes, the annoying fur ball," Maia said with distaste. "I shall take pleasure in killing you too. Yes, we will kill you, for we now have a greater power than you could ever hope to wield." She raised the huge green stone up above her head, where it glowed as brightly as the world's green sun. "Behold, the precursor stone!" she cried out in delight. Jak and Daxter stared at the stone in disbelief.

"The stone lay within the depths of the dark eco. It has given us a new power, much stronger than that of dark eco. With it, we can easily overcome our enemies, or anyone that gets in our way," Gol explained, a sly smile on his face. "With it and the dark eco, we shall reshape the world as we have always desired, and nothing can stop us."

"NO!" a distorted voice cried, and everyone turned to look at Errol, who had remained silent through the conversation. "This is my world to destroy!" He had taken up a fighting stance once again. "I shall not be denied any longer!" he shouted in outrage, and then pointed one of his arms up at the twins, the end of the arm having converted into a gun.

He open fired at Maia, but no sooner had the shots left his gun barrel as she quickly streaked out of the way, moving so fast she was simply a blur. Errol tried to follow her with his aim, but she moved to quickly for him to ever get a chance to fire. Then suddenly she appeared right in front of him, her face set in a scowl. Before he had time to react she held forward the precursor stone, and a green jag of electricity jumped from the stone to his metal body. The strike sent his body flying through the air, and it clattered down heavily on the metal floor a short distance away.

After lying still on his back for a few minutes Errol started to push himself up into a sitting position. His mask had come off his face, which could now been seen to be purely robotic: two glowing red eyes looking out from metal skin. Two metal eyebrows narrowed into a scowl as he tried to get to his feet. But before he could stand up Maia was upon him, leaning over his body. She had removed one hand from the stone and now cusped it in front of her, a ball of purple dark energy building up inside it. Errol didn't have a chance to move before she turned her hand towards him and a stream of dark energy streaked out of her hand and onto his body. He was slammed back down against the ground again, his body now twisting and turning as the dark energy spread over it. Even when the energy ball disappeared from Maia's hand the dark lightening continued to crackle over his form as he choked and gasped in agony.

Maia reached down with the same free hand towards his chest. Her long slender fingers gripped the edge of a metal chest plate and then she started to pull. The metal buckled with the force pulling it against its holdings, but with great strength she managed to rip it off, screws and bolts flying everywhere as they were flung free. She threw the chest plate to the side and looked down and the exposed machinery that had lie under it. In the center of Errol's chest was a bright red glowing light. Maia placed her hand back on the precursor stone, holding it out towards the robot's chest. Errol's red eyes flashed brightly before another jag of green electricity leaped from the stone and straight into his chest light. A horrific distorted scream emitted from his head as his body jerked in spasms.

The stone's power disappeared again and then Errol fell silent, his body stopped jerking and he lay completely still. Maia floated up and away from his lifeless form, grinning darkly as she flew back to her brother's side. Gol gave his sister a look of approval.

"As you can see, you are no match against us," Gol stated, "or our army."

"Army?" Jak shocked out in confusion, his eyes widening.

Gol gave a sinister chuckle, and then closed his eyes, clasping his hands in front of him. Jak heard a deep grumbling, and then looked over to the dark eco silo, which was bubbling again. Other figures began to leap out of the dark eco, landing on the rim of the silo. They stood on all fours, and had dark grey skin covered in shiny grey carapace like armor. Their heads displays monstrous, fanged faces, and on top of their heads were embedded glowing yellow gems.


	8. Chapter 7: Temporary Triumph

Authors note: Um, yah, here the next bit. Somehow my chapters just keep getting longer and longer. ._.

I think I might have made Jak talk a little too much near the end but... things had to be said, y'know?

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><p>"Metal heads?" Daxter exclaimed in surprise as the dark creatures leapt on the remaining death bots and ripped them apart. He and Jak turned to look up at Gol and Maia again, who were still smiling.<p>

"Metal… heads?" Gol asked in confusion. "I do not know what you mean. These are creatures we created ourselves during our long imprisonment. We call them… the Hora-Quan," as he explained more and more metal creatures leaped from the dark eco, many of them now of varying types, with different shapes and sizes. They took up positions around the rim, some taking to the sky on whirring thin membranous wings.

"We used the dark eco to create their bodies, the metal from our precursor robot to build their armor, and the power of the precursor stone to breathe life into them… in an energy containing within their skull gems," Maia said smoothly, seemingly impressed by her own efforts. "They are the perfect warriors, combining the great powers of dark eco and the precursor stone."

The number of metal heads leaping from the eco had now diminished, until no more came. At that moment the dark surface began to bubble even more viciously than before, and a huge lump appeared in the middle of the dark eco. Then, in a huge explosion that sent dark eco flying everywhere, a huge creature burst forth from the surface. Its grey skin and shiny carapace identified it as a metal head, but it was much bigger than all the other ones that had gathered on the edge of the silo. The creature floated in the eco for a moment, before propelling itself to the edge and grasping hold of the precursor metal with both huge clawed hands. Smaller metal heads moved away as the huge monster pulled itself out of the lake, dark eco sloughing off its body.

It balanced precariously on the edge, standing on six huge spider-like legs which protruded from its lower body. A huge tail lifted out of the eco, revealing a large stinger on its end. Large green lumps covered most of the monsters upper tail and lower back. Two large arms along with two smaller ones protruded from its upper body. It turned its huge head to look up at the tower. Its face was surrounded by a multitude of tentacles. It had large yellow eyes with black slits for pupils and a fanged mouth. Embedded in its forehead was a massive yellow skull gem.

"Our greatest creation, the leader of our Hora-Quan: Kor," Gol introduced the monster, and a smile cross both his and Kor's faces. The giant metal head spread out his insect like wings and leaped into the air, the wings moving furiously to keep the great weight aloft. He flew over to where Gol and Maia floated, hovering behind his masters.

"Kor," Jak said coolly, blue eyes burning as he looked up at his floating enemies. Now it all made sense. This is how the metal heads started, created by Gol and Maia from dark eco, precursor metal and the power of the precursor stone, which had lay in wait at the bottom of the eco silo for millennia. This is what Onin and the Oracle had meant by beginning what he had ended: he had already killed Kor, but now is when the monster had come into the world. And long ago he had begun his fight with Gol and Maia, and it was time to end that here, to end them here.

"Let's rock," Jak said cockily, aiming his morph gun up at Gol and Maia.

The twins seemed shocked. "You still think you can defeat us?" Gol wondered aloud.

"Stupid child," Maia spat, "You are no match for us. Prepare to die."

With that Maia swooped down towards Jak, holding the precursor stone out in her hands. Jak quickly slid to the side out of the way, then whipped around and let fire some yellow rounds at Maia. The bullets slammed into her shoulder, knocking her backwards through the air. She let out a gasp and grasped the wounded shoulder with one hand. Jak was just re-aiming when he heard a whoosh through the air near him. He turned around to come face to face with Gol, who was holding on hand up near his face and charging a sphere of dark energy within it. Jak tried to move out of the way but was still hit by the shot. He grunted as the sphere hit into his chest, and it was absorbed into his flesh upon impact.

Jak doubled over as the purple lightning lanced across his body. He clenched and unclenched his fists in front of him as long black claws sprouted from his fingers. Skin paled were the lightning crackled across it, and whitening hair stood up from the electricity. Jak looked up at Gol again with obsidian eyes, and then gripped his own head in his hands as two black horns burst from his skull, dropping his morph gun in the process.

Gol looked down at the apparition in front of him with surprise. "What is this dark power?" he exclaimed. But in that moment of hesitation the dark monster swiftly struck Gol in the side with a clawed hand. Gol was thrown to the side by the force of the strike and the shock caused him to fall out of the air and onto the metal ground. Jak was about to run after him when he was suddenly lifted into the air, a large claw locked around his waist. Jak placed his hand on the claw and tried to pull himself free, but the grip was like iron. Jak swung his head around to stare up into the huge face of Kor, who was smiling maliciously at the small human he held in his hand.

Kor reached out with his other hand and picked Jak up by the back of his shirt, holding him up in front of his face. Jak went into a frenzy, thrashing around wildly, trying to escape the grip. But he could not. Kor chuckled. "You are so weak, pitiful human," Kor said in contempt, giving Jak a shake. Jak snarled and then put his hands together in front of himself, conjuring up his own dark energy sphere. He flung it out at Kor's head. The energy smashed into Kor's face, causing him to abruptly let go of Jak. Jak landed heavily on all fours, and then looked up to see Kor stumbling backwards, his hands to his face, roaring in pain. The metal head didn't see where he was going, and so one of his legs stepped out into the thin air beyond the edge of the tower. This caused Kor to slip, lose his balance and then fell off the edge, disappearing from sight.

Jak had reverted and was just getting to his feet when something slammed into him from behind, knocking him to the ground again. He struggled underneath the weight on top of him, turning around so that he was lying on his back. It was Maia who had landed on top of him, and was now straddling his body as she held the precursor stone over him. Jak's arms shot up in front of him, gripping the stone and trying to hold it back as Maia tried to push it down towards him. Green electric pulses crackled across his arms, and pain shot through his nerves. A larger bolt jumped from the stone's center and struck him in the chest, causing his whole body to spasm. Maia showed her teeth as she increased the power of the bolt. Jak's eyes rolled back into his head, and he closed them as his struggling became feebler.

Just as Jak thought he was going to explode from the pain it suddenly stopped. His eyes flickered open and the green lightning was no longer there. Maia was still leaning over him but she had dropped the precursor stone, which now lay to his side on the ground. Her face was contorted with pain, and as she crawled off and away from him he noticed a bullet hole through her skin on her back. Jak pushed himself up into a sitting position, and then looked straight ahead of him. Standing a few meters from him was Daxter, hefting Jak's morph gun up on his shoulder, the barrel smoking. Daxter gave Jak a huge grin and winked at him.

Even though he was still hurting Jak couldn't help but grin back, and then turned over to pick up the precursor stone. As he hefted the gem stone up he examined its surface, trying to figure out how to use its power. Maybe it responded to Maia's dark powers? He tried forcing some dark eco through his hand and into the stone. But green power lanced back out at him, stinging his hand and causing him to drop the stone. He quickly snatched it back up again, turning it over in his hands. But a sudden screech broke his concentration, and he turned around to face a furious Maia who was on her feet again.

"My stone!" she screamed at him, and shot an energy sphere towards him. It hit into the precursor stone, causing it to fly from his hand, skidding across the precursor metal towards the rift ring. It came to a halt next to where Keira and Tess were still standing. Keira stepped up to the stone, and leant down to pick it up. As soon as her hand touched its glassy surface a bright glow exploded from the gem, beams of green light filling the space around her. Keira's green eyes glowed unnaturally bright as she stared down at the stone, putting her hands around it to lift it off the ground. She held it up in front of her and it glowed steadily, much brighter than it ever had in Maia's hands.

"No!" Maia cried out, running towards Keira. "The stone is mine. MINE!" she streaked past Jak, not giving him and chance to stop her, but then abruptly stopped as she entered the glow of the stone, her hand held out towards it. "Ugh!" Maia grunted, bending over and clutching her stomach as if in pain. She glanced up at Keira with hate filled eyes and reach out towards the stone again. Keira stumbled backwards and the glow of the stone brightened.

To Maia's horror the hand she held out in front of her began to fade, starting at the finger tip and then working up her grey skinned arm. "No," she muttered, her eyes now filled with fear rather than hate. She tried to move but was glued to the spot. "No, this can't be happening," she exclaimed as the green light pierced through her body, causing her form to grow fainter. "No, NOOO!" Maia cried out, and her body burst into specks of light, so that the air shimmered where she had stood.

Keira stared at the spot where the woman had stood in alarm. She then turned her gaze back down to the brightly glowing stone, her expression a mixture of wonder and fear. At a soft tap on her shoulder Keira turned her head to look at Tess who sat there. The blonde ottsel tried to give her a reassuring look, patting her shoulder gently with one paw. Keira then turned her gaze over to Jak, who was staring at her with uncertainty.

"No! My sister, what have you done to her?" an outraged Gol demanded, and everyone turned their heads to look at him where he was standing a short distance from them. He was giving Keira and the precursor stone a cold glare of hate and was clenching one grey fist out in front of himself. His chest was heaving as he breathed heavily.

"I... I don't know… I… didn't mean to I…" Keira stuttered out, her face a mask of terror as she watched Gol's angry façade, worried at what he was going to do.

Gol grunted as he held his hands out in front of him, forming a large dark sphere between them, aimed towards Keira and Tess. Jak didn't hesitate, streaking over to throw himself between Gol and Keira. The energy sphere flew through the air towards Jak, and he put his hands out in front of himself. The sphere didn't hit them; instead it came to a halt within Jak's grasp. With a dark grin Jak flung the dark sphere back towards its creator. A look of alarm crossed Gol's face as the sphere hurtled towards him, smashing into his body before he could put his hands up to protect himself. The impact sent him flying backwards, landing on his back on the ground again.

Jak quickly sprinted over to Gol's body before he could rise, and grabbed the man around his waist. Then in a great feat of strength Jak lifted Gol up and flung him towards Keira. Gol's dark body slid across the ground, coming to a halt a few feet away from where Keira was standing. Keira looked from the man's body back up at Jak in confusion as he ran towards her.

"The stone Keira, touch him with it!" Jak shouted as he approached.

Keira looked down at the stone in her hands nervously, and then over at Gol. She wasn't a person who liked to harm others, but she knew what she had to do. Tess jumped off her shoulder and onto the ground as Keira stepped up to Gol, just as Jak reached him as well. Gol had begun to rise, trying to push himself up into a sitting position, but Jak quickly place a hand on the sage's chest and pushed him forcefully back down to the ground. Then the blonde looked up at Keira again and nodded.

Keira swallowed hard before she begun kneeling down next to Gol. She looked at the sage's face as she held the precursor stone out towards him. The overwhelming fear in his eyes stung her, but she set her mouth in a firm line, closed her eyes and pushing the stone onto his body.

A wretched scream burst through Gol's throat as his form began to fade, before it burst into small particles of light, just like Maia's had. When Keira opened her eyes again he was gone.

"Ugh," this sound caused Keira to snap her head up to look at Jak. He stumbled back away from where Gol had laid, and spread out his legs, clenching his fists in front of him. The skin on the hand that he had held Gol down with had steam coiling off of it. As he blinked his eyes changed from normal, to black, to white blue, and back again. The steaming hand sprouted claws but the other didn't, instead taking on a white blue glowing hue. Horns appeared on his head but at the same time a pair of glowing tendril wings burst from his back. Jak fell to his knees, pressing his hands down against the precursor metal as he fought the pain of the mixed transformation.

"Jak!" Keira exclaimed in horror, dropping the precursor stone to the ground and running over to where he knelt. As she approached the light and dark powers began to fade, leaving normal Jak kneeling there, whole body heaving as he panted. Keira fell to her knees next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Jak turned his head to look at her, scowling. This caused Keira to pull away slightly, but as soon as Jak's eyes properly focused on her the scowl disappeared.

"Jak, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, are you all right?" Keira babbled between choking sobs, tears clinging to her lashes as she stared down at the ground. She sniffed and took her hand from Jak's shoulder.

"No, Keira, it's okay, I'm fine. It wasn't your fault," Jak said as he straightened his back, rubbing one of his hands with the other. He looked at her with concern and she sniffed again, turning her head further away from him, rubbing one hand over her eyes to dash away the tears. Jak shuffled on his knees closer to her, and then reached out to embrace her. She didn't fight against it as he pulled her body close to his, one of her shoulders on his chest and the other in one of his hands. She turned her head to sob into his shoulder.

After a long moment of silence Jak spoke again. "'Mar covered his tracks well through time, hiding his last egg from me,'" he echoed the words Kor had spoken to him years ago. "But it isn't only the stone Mar had to protect… I have to protect… it is you as well," Jak said calmly, gently stroking Keira's teal hair. The girl turned her head to look up at him in surprise and confusion. "The stone responds to you Keira… though I think it isn't ready to hatch yet. But in the future… the past… a descendant of you will have the power to open it…"

"…You," Keira realized, looking at his face with uncertainty. "But that's…"

"Really screwed up I know," Jak finished her sentence for her, and sighed. "But it does make sense. I must protect you and the stone from Kor… I must build haven city to protect the stone until it is ready... to be hatched by me…" he paused, "Okay, maybe it doesn't make much sense but it seems like that is what will happen… has happened…"

"Will ya give it a rest Jak!" Daxter demanded as he walked up to the two humans, holding the morph gun over his shoulder. "You're gonna give us all a headache soon!"

"Maybe its best not to think about it and just see what happens," Tess said from the other direction, also approaching them.

Jak nodded and said no more, while Keira gently pulled away from him so she could dry her tear stained cheeks. They were just getting to their feet again when there was a loud thud and the whole tower shook. They all turned their heads towards where the rift ring floated in the air.

Standing next to the ring was Kor who had just landed back on the tower. His little fall didn't seem to have damaged him at all, and he treated the group of humans and ottsels to a fanged grin. Before anyone could say or do anything the metal head leader took to the air again and grabbed one side of the rift ring with his large arms. He lifted the precursor device into the air, flying it over towards the dark eco silo where the other metal heads awaited. He placed it in the air next to the edge of the silo, and looked down at his army. The metal heads looked up at the vortex in awe, smaller flying ones hovering near it anxiously. Then a few of the flying ones moved tentatively towards it, before being sucked through into the vortex. The rest of the flying swarm followed quickly, and then the walking types began to follow suit, leaping through the rift gate. They shuffled around the rim of the silo to get to the ring, jumping through in groups, the larger flying ones zooming through overhead. Kor hovered next to the ring as he watched his army enter it.

Jak, Keira, Daxter and Tess all ran to the edge of the tower, looking over at the procession. Kor turned his giant head to look up at them, grinning again. "One day I shall return for the stone and conquer this world," he said as the last of the metal heads jumped through the ring. He then flew in front of the ring himself and propelled his huge bulk through the gate, quickly disappearing from sight.


End file.
